Let's Play Tag!
by Snuffex
Summary: A meeting in a seedy bar. A discussion of interests. And a small game. Things thieves do when they want to play.


_Snuffex: Hey, everyone I'm back. My computer has been on hiatus for over a month now and has just been fixed. To all of you waiting for another chapter in Crossing Worlds you'll have to wait a little longer. _

_Disclaimer: I own neither Gundam Wing nor Jing King of Bandits. They both belong to their respectful owners, and I am only using their creations for fun. I don't get paid for this it is just all fun and games for me._

_Now, with that out of the way on with the story._

Let's Play Tag

A teen with pitch black spiky hair and wearing a blazing yellow coat strode down the dark alleyway without a care in the world. His only companion a blue raven that rested lightly on his shoulder was complaining about the walk. Not that the six-teen year old was paying him much attention. After all he had more important things to think about then Kir's infatuation with the fairer sex.

His soft yellow leather boots hit the pavement softly. His dark eyes scanned the area looking for one thing in particular. There! It was a small niche in the otherwise completely plain wall.

"Here it is."

"Humph, so this is the place? Not very impressive." Kir squawked. Jing chuckled at the unenthused response and pushed down the niche in the wall. Kir ruffled his feathers as the section of the wall they were looking at slowly slide in, and to the side.

"Why do the underground bars have to be so hidden?" Kir complained as the two entered the dimly light opening.

"Now, Kir if the door was obvious then it wouldn't really be an underground bar." Jing smirked at the irritated bird.

As they walked in the buzzing of voices picked up for a minute as the occupants took a look at the new comers. Most gaffed at the sight of the two not finding either of the two very intimidating. Jing's smirk was still on his face at the reaction. It was one that the two received often enough. That is until someone found out that this brat was the much famed King of the Bandits.

The place was filled with the usual scoundrels that plague every town, thieves, cutthroats, and all other sorts of vermin. _My kind of place._ Jing made his way down the rickety stairs ignore the jeers he received from the closes group of scum. He made his way over to the bartender skillfully dodging wander hands that were after his purse.

The bartender was one of the ugliest creatures that the two have ever seen. It was short and fat, it's skin a sickly looking green color, and had multiple chins that hung from its face. Four beady eyes glared from under think frazzled eyebrows. Sweat covered its brow as it snorted in Jing's face.

"Yeah, and what'er you havin boy?" Crooked yellow teeth gnashed together and the purple tongue tried to form the foreign words. Spittle flew in odd directions, some of it striking Kir's beak. Kir made a disgusted sound and flew away from the two.

"I'm looking for someone. They would probably be wearing an outfit that would be suspicious even in a place like this." The bartender scratched at one of his many chins, pulling at hairs on one of his many moles. The eyes looked thoughtful for a moment.

"I ner of the one yer look'in for. Them be sitt'in in the back o'er there, been there fer a while now." Four eyes narrowed in suspicion at the King of the Bandits. "You n yer friend not gunna cause any tr'uble right, boy?"

Jing laughed and waved him off. "No, no trouble." The lithe teen turned around and headed in the direction that the bar tender had pointed to. "Well at least not until I find out what this person needs."

The table that was pointed out to him was in the darkest corner of the establishment. The darkness cast half of the table in shadows. It was in the shadowed half that Jing could barely make out a figure of a person. _Hiding in the darkest corner, che, how clique_. Black boots rested on top of the table making it easy to tell the King of Bandits that his caller was leaning his chair back to rest against the wall. This made it harder for him to see the person's features.

"Hey, Jing are you sure meeting this person is in our best interest?" Kir had returned from his flight around the room. He didn't spot any women in the bar that he could try and woe with glittering jewels that the two had pick pocketed from a fat rich man on the way to the seedy bar.

"You worry too much Kir. We wouldn't have been called out here if they intended to harm us." They had reached the table at that point. One of the delicate black knee high boots tapped mildly at the air, as if the owner was listening to a song that only they could hear.

The boot stopped moving as the King of Bandits grabbed the seat opposite of them and sat down.

"Hmm, so you are the famed King of Bandits." The voice was a rich tenor, playful and mysterious at the same time. "I didn't expect you to have a pet."

Kir bristled at the words.

"Now, look here scum I'm not anyone one's pet let alone Jing's." There was chuckle from the shadows.

"Well he sure is feisty isn't he?" These words were addressed to Jing. "So sorry my good crow, I meant no offense to your noble being." There was a lightly playful mocking tone as the soft looking black boots moved off the table. Not even a second later a waiter placed a neon blue drink where they had been.

"I have been rude, would either you or your companion like something to drink dear King?" Jing looked to Kir. The bird was still a bit muffed but decided to take their host up on the offer. A short time later the waiter was bustling off into the din to get their drinks.

"So, my good sir?" Jing paused hoping to gain the gender from the person. There was a pause. Then Jing went on, knowing that he wasn't going to get an answer. "What is the business of our meeting with each other?"

There was a rich laugh, "Right to the point, huh?"

A delicate looking hand reached out and took a gentle but firm grip on the glass of the neon blue liquid. It disappeared into the shadows for a minute then reappeared with only half of its contents left.

"I am looking into having you steal something." Jing and Kir blinked at the same time.

"Steal for you?" The two friends looked at each other, then back to the person. "Sorry but we don't do contracted jobs."

The person laughed making it seem as if the shadows they were surrounded by were mocking them. "I really don't think this is a job that you can refuse."

"Oh, really and how's that?!" Kir snapped.

"First I will tell you the job and then the reason as to why."

"What the hell! Why should we listen to…" The bird cut off as Jing held up a hand.

"Kir, let's hear what is going on before coming to hasty decisions." The crow nodded at the black haired teen. "Go on."

"First, one question. Have you two come across any strange or ancient technology in your travels?" The hand reappeared again as the person took a drink waiting on their answer. Jing thought back to their travels, and the technology that they had encountered in some of their adventures. One of them stuck in the front of his mind.

"Yes, we have had a brief encounter with a woman who seemed to be frozen in time by the tank that she was contained in." Jing stated mildly as Kir's beak turned down into a frown. That woman had almost tricked Jing into becoming part of the mechanism she was in.

"Ah I see. This job is much like most of your others in that it involves stealing what cannot be stolen, but different in the fact that what I want is a piece of ancient technology." The person paused, the waiter had finally returned with Jing's and Kir's drinks. Placing them quickly in front of the two the waiter once again bustled off.

"What I want is located in a town called Knowledge." Jing sipped cautiously at his beer while he listened. "First you need to travel the City of Masks. There the royal family is hiding the Key of Minds. This key will open the passage to Knowledge."

Jing winced on the inside the City of Masks was one of the last places that he wanted to go to. Especially after what had happened there the last time: love. He had found love in the form of the city's princess, whom by now had happily married the guard that had been infatuated with her since he first laid eyes on her. It was not a city that he wanted to return to.

"Getting the key is the easy part, getting what I want will not." The playful voice suddenly turned hard as steel. "What I want is the Trust's Memories. It is located in the very middle of the town, under the building known as the Library. The Memories are several floors down from the surface."

"And what makes you think that I will go and steal these Memories for you?" Jing asked in a light tone. There was a laugh.

"You seem to miss understand. I don't want you to steal it _for_ me; I want you to steal it _with_ me."

The two friends could feel their jaws drop. This was the first time anything like this had happened to them. It just isn't done. To ask the King of Bandits to join you while you did a job just doesn't happen. It was Kir that decided to voice objection. Jing was still too busy trying to get his mind back in working order.

"WITH YOU! The King of Bandits doesn't need partners to do a job!" The shadows laughed at the two.

"Then you will fail, this is a job where two especially skills thieves are needed to pull it off."

"AND WHAT MAKES YOU THINK THAT YOU'RE SKILLED ENOUGH TO WORK WITH US!" Kir screeched at the person.

"Well now that comes back to the reason as to why you will not refuse this job."

Jing and Kir waited while they heard the shadows shift. The person across from them had just stood up. They just stood there as though waiting for something to happen, and it did. The dim lights of the bar blacked out and then just as quickly flickered back on. The person was gone, but in their place a wide eyed and white face King of Bandits sat.

"Jing! Jing, what's wrong?!" Kir barked at the unmoving teen. Jing ignored his friend and quickly raced out of the bar with a speed that only he possessed. His dark eyes searched the surrounding areas while his mind played back the last message the stranger had left him with when the lights had gone out.

"_You're it!"_

It was at that moment that Jing had noticed his mother's jewel was missing. The stranger had taken it. The most precious thing to him and it was gone! How? How was it possible that he, Jing King of Bandits, didn't feel the theft as it was occurring? Jing ignored Kir as he focused everything to find that stranger.

There! A piece of black clothing caught the corner of his eye, and Jing was swiftly following after it. The stranger was fast moving swiftly through the crowds with a speed the rivaled Jing's own.

"Kir! He has it!" The bird swiftly winged his way to the teen. "He stole my mother's jewel!" Kir's eyes widened. It was no wonder Jing was in a panic, it was the only clue that the teen had left of his mother.

"I'll fly ahead and see if I can slow him down." Jing nodded and Kir shot ahead straight for the swiftly moving cloth of black. Jing pushed himself to go faster, nimbly bounding out of the way of human traffic as they got in his way.

He could see the two just ahead of him, the stranger just a few wing beats ahead of the blue crow. In a few moments Kir would catch up and then Jing's jewel would be back where it belonged, with him.

_Shit!_ Jing briefly lost sighting of the two as the stranger changed direction and darted down another alley. By the time Jing had made it to the alley both the stranger and Kir were gone.

"DAMNIT!" Jing's cry of frustration bounced off the walls of the dirty and dark alley. His eyes narrowed into a glare. He would catch that stranger and take back his mother's jewel even if it took him four lifetimes to do it.

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It had been several hours already and still Jing couldn't find a trace of the stranger nor his bird friend. He knew that both of them were still in the city. He would have known instantly if the jewel had left the city, and Kir wouldn't have let the stranger leave even if he had tried.

Jing had turned into another back street; the city was a maze, when he heard a noise off to his right. Looking at the area he noticed a street lamp that had just flickered to life as the sun finished it trek across the sky. Another noise came from the vicinity of the streetlight. Quickly the King of Bandits moved toward it.

Circling around the light he stopped in amazement at the sight before him. A smile tugged at his lips as his previous sour mood turned into one of humor. It was Kir. The crafty stranger had tied the bird to the streetlight with the chain of his mother's jewel. The jewel itself hung down the front of Kir making him seem as if he were wearing a necklace.

But what really made the situation humorous was that there was a sign tied to the crow's beak, making the bird unable to call for help. Jing quickly reached out and untied Kir's beak. The bird let out a hefty amount of curses toward the person who had left him there like that for a good part of an hour.

He flapped as Jing lovingly untied the jewel and looked it over closely for any scratches or dents that might have occurred while not in his care.

"Don't worry Jing. He didn't do anything to it." The teen looked down at the bird while he brushed off invisible dirt. "He said he knew how important it was to you and that he carried something of equal value." Kir scrutinized Jing for a moment. "He also said that you better take good care of his necklace because he wants it back the next time we meet."

Jing pulled out the piece of jewelry. It was plain looking, silver cross, but had such detail to it that he was unable to resist flinching it from the stranger. Kir looked at it in curiosity then snorted and turned away.

"Doesn't look very valuable to me." Kir stated and took his normal resting place on Jing's shoulder.

"The value's not in the price, but what it means to the person." Jing looked in his other hand at his jewel as he said this. Kir nodded in understanding.

"So what's that damn sign say anyway?" Jing quickly pocketed both the cross and his jewel, and picked up the sign. Flipping it over Jing read the black scrawl across the roughen surface. It read:

_That was fun King of Bandits. _

_Let's play again soon._

_Oh, and do take care of my cross._

_I'll be taking it back next time we meet._

_Shinigami_

_Snuffex: Well what do you guys think? I always thought it would be fun to put Duo Maxwell and Jing King of Bandits together, and it was. Thanks for reading reviews are welcomed._


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